All You Need Is A Little Hope
by Jinx0-0
Summary: Another X-5 shows up in Seattle a week after AJBAC. Fixed some things. COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Title: All You Need Is A Little Hope.

Author: Jinx 0-0

Email: witness_the_power_of_cheese@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not Yours. Theirs.  
Summary: Another X-5 shows up in Seattle a week after "And Jesus Brought a Casserole".  
Spoilers/Time frame: Occurs before the escape in "Designate This".  
Rating: PG 13 

  
  
  
  
  
  


"Oh shit!" cried Hope as a searing pain ripped through her chest, causing her to fall to her knees. Along with the pain came a rush of images and voices. "Not again," Hope whispered, right before she passed out. 

Flash 

A girl being wheeled into some kind of operating room. 

"Max!" 

Flash 

A heart monitor going flat 

"The bullet went clean through. Her right ventricle is collapsed. She's gone." 

Flash 

A blond haired boy struggling against the restraints holding him down. 

"Prep her for harvesting" 

"No!" 

Flash 

The boy holding a gun to his head. 

"Fight them, Maxie, never give up. X5-599, I've got a heart for you." 

**********  
Max. That was the first thought that entered Hope's mind when she woke up. And Zach. She just knew it was them. This wasn't the first time she had these flashy, voice thingies. Every couple of years Hope would have one. I have to go to Seattle. There's someone there who needs me. Someone who's about to give up. Hope thought. Her lips tightened. It had been years since she had been outside Marathon. Marathon was safe. It was home. No, home is where the heart is, she told herself. And my heart is with my family. Hope made up her mind. She was going to Seattle. 

Five days later: 

Hope winced as the floor creaked under her foot. Her eyes immediately went to the figure slumped over the keyboard to a computer three feet in front of her. The figure was snoring loudly and Hope could smell the alcohol on him from where she stood. Drunk, Hope thought with disgust, while eyeing the wheelchair in the corner. What could Max possibly see in this man? No man was good enough for her baby sister. Except maybe Zach, Hope thought absently. She was getting tired of coming up with possible scenarios about what might have happened to her brother and sister. 

She sniffed the air again. Nope, way too much alcohol. He's not going to be able to help me any time soon. Hope stalked up to the chair Logan was sitting in and pushed him out of it. She rolled her eyes as he let out a low groan when he hit the floor. She sat down at the computer. After a few seconds of her fingers flying over the keyboard, she whistled. Damn...this guy was good. Very good. Almost too good. Hope's eyes narrowed as a sudden thought flew though her head. With the tip of her boot she nudged Logan onto his back, and slipped off his glasses. 

"Well, if it isn't Mister Eye's Only himself." She growled grumpily, then she sighed. "I guess this means I have to make sure you don't do anything stupid and get your self killed," Hope said, even though Logan couldn't hear her. She turned back to the computer. She really didn't feel like going though all the fire walls and having to decode something ever two seconds. There was another way she could get in. 

Manticore had made her a little different from the others. Sure, they all had their own special abilities, but Hope was different. Besides having all the twisted DNA, she had, well, Hope guessed you could call it software. Hope nervously licked her lips. She hadn't done this since she left Manticore. She slowly turned her hand palm side up. At her wrist there was a piece of slightly discolored flesh. It wouldn't be noticeable if you didn't know what you were looking for. Hope slowly let out the breath she'd been holding. With a slightly shaking hand she reached up and pulled back on the flap of skin. Hope felt a wave of nausea sweep through her at the site of the little plug that protruding slightly from her wrist. Trying not to think too much about it, she pulled on the plug. Hope shuttered slightly, as she felt mussels and tendons move that hadn't been used in years. There was a slight slurping sound as the plug slipped out of her arm. Attached to the end of the plug was a wires/tendons/vessels that allowed movement of the plug for up to eight feet of slack. With one last glance down at Logan, Hope moved back to the computer, and for the first time since Manticore, she jacked in. 

  
  



	2. Dog E Dog

  
  


He was on the floor. That was the first though that entered Logan's mind when he came to. With a slight moan he cracked open one eye, and then quickly snapped it closed. Oh God. There was someone in his apartment. Not just any someone. A girl. A girl with red hair. How did she find me? God, what are she going to do to me? At The thought of anyone, doing anything, to him, Logan automatically tensed. Five seconds went by, then twenty. After a full two and a half minutes had passed Logan let out a slow breath. Obviously nothing was going to happen until he opened his eyes. So he did--just in time to meet a pair of intense green ones. 

"Logan Cale, also known as Eyes Only. You want to save the world, or what's left of it. Max just wanted to find the others." 

The girl was staring straight ahead. Her eyes were blank, empty. 

"You have files on almost every government conspiracy since the pulse, including Manticore. You also have a file on all the X-5's you've come into contact with: Zach, Brin, Tinga,Ben, and Jace. Four out of the 12 that escaped in '09. On that account you're wrong, though. It wasn't just twelve that escaped, it was thirteen." 

Hope shook herself out of the daze the always followed jack ins, and sucked in a low breath. 

Logan just stared at her with wide eyes. In his shock he was only able to utter one word. "Thirteen?" 

"Yeah." Hope slumped back in the chair. "They didn't even notice I was missing until I didn't answer during role call the next day." Hope snorted. "By then the report had already been sent in. They didn't want to look even more stupid by saying that they hadn't even noticed when I walked right though the front gate. So they said I was caught by the dogs." Hope let out a sarcastic laugh. "Caught by the dogs, yea right. Those dog would have done anything I wanted them to." 

Logan looked so confused, she felt the need to clarify. 

"I got some K-9 from the powers that be. Somewhere along the way someone thought it would be funny to have both a dog and a cat mixed in with the X-5's. I guess they wanted to see if I would chase my tail or something." 

When Logan looked her over with renewed interest, Hope resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

"The tail in question being strictly metaphorical." 

Logan blushed slightly. "Maybe you should tell me your name since you already know mine." 

Hope grinned. This guy had guts. "Name's Hope." When Logan raised an eyebrow, she raised her hands in a gesture of mock surrender. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But, hey, I'll have you know it wasn't my idea," Hope said with a grin. 

Logan cocked his head. "It wasn't your idea? What you just let someone else pick your name for you?" he said sarcastically. 

Hope shrugged. "Pretty much." 

Logan realized that she was serious. But he still had to ask. "You're serious?" 

"Yep, the day we gave ourselves names, the little girl who was 452, soon to be Max, knew I was really nervous about an obstacle corse we were going to run the next day. So she tried to cheer me up by saying I just needed a little hope." Hope gave a sweeping bow. "Thus was marked the beginning of the Hope you see before you today." 

Logan was quiet for a moment. He knew he shouldn't ask, because he had already guessed the answer, but he wanted to know so badly... 

"So you named each other? No one picked their names for themselves?" Logan asked as casually as he could manage. 

Hope grinned rather evilly. She knew exactly what he wanted to know. She also knew how he felt about Max. She decided to tease him a little. 

"Nope. No one picked their own names. Like I told you. Max named me." Hope nodded her head with each name. "I named Ben, Ben named Zane, Zane named Syl, Syl named Tinga, Tinga named Brin, Brin named Jace, Jace named-" Hope was cut off by Logan. 

"Okay, okay, I get it. And that's all nice and swell." Then he added sharply. "But who named Max?" 

"Whoa jeeze, don't bite my tail off," she joked. At Logan's dark look she quickly added. "Zach. It was Zach." 

"Right, Zach. Of corse it was Zach. Big brother Zach. Great leader Zach. I should have known," Logan said sarcastically. You did know, thought Hope, out loud she said. "You did know, or at least you thought you knew. Why did you ask?" 

Logan signed. "I have no idea." He took a deep breath and then looked her straight in the eye. "What did you mean by that whole ''escaping by myself'' thing? I've never found any records of a thirteenth X-5 escaping." 

Hope shrugged. "Maybe you just didn't know were to look." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan asked. Hope just shrugged again. "Okay, well then, why don't you tell me what happened the night of the escape," Logan said. 

Hope nodded slowly. "Okay." Logan watched as Hope took a deep breath. "When the escape started I was looking for new scrubs. I'd had a nightmare and wet the bed." Hope choked off a sob. "You want to know what it was about? I dreamed that my brothers and sisters left me and then they forgot who I was, so they didn't even notice I wasn't with them." 

As Logan watched a lone tear slid down her cheek. 

"By the time I got back to the barracks. The one's who were going had already left. I didn't know what to do but I didn't want to get left behind, so I just started running. When I got to the gate, the guard just stared at me. He didn't even move as I walked right out the main gate." 

Hope had to take a deep breath to finish her story, but she felt like she needed to tell someone. And Logan Cale seemed as good as anyone. 

"I ran until I got to the meeting point. It was a clearing we could see from own window at Manticore. It was about three clicks away. It took me four days to realize no one was coming to get me. A few weeks later I managed to get to a computer line and jack into Manticore. That was when I realized the others didn't even know I made it out. My nightmare had come true. Funny how things work out like that." 

Hope slowly lifted her eyes to meet Logan's, they were glittering with tears. "And now I've found one of them. So tell me, please, Logan. Where the hell is my sister?" 


	3. The Powers That Be

  
  


Now it was Logan's turn to blink back tears. Where is Max? Now that's a good question, Logan thought. I guess they would have taken her body back to Manticore. Out of the corner of his eye, Logan saw Hope cock her head to the side like she was listening to something and then narrow her eyes. 

"What?!" Hope demanded. "What is it? Tell me!" Logan couldn't meet her eyes. How do you tell someone their sister is dead? he asked himself. Caught up in his thoughts, Logan didn't hear the low growl that emitted from Hope's throat. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice when Hope finally jumped from her chair and stalked toward him. He was forced to turn his attention back to her when he found himself thrown against the wall with Hope's hand at his throat. When he jerked his eyes to meet hers, he was amazed to see that her eyes had turned from a forest green to a deep yellow. 

He could tell the very instant she focused on him. Logan couldn't tear his eyes away from hers. His body went slack. "Tell me," Hope said again. 

"She and Zach tried to take down Manticore. They failed. Max is KIA, and Zach is MIA." Logan heard a voice answer, and wondered were it was coming from before he realized it was his own. 

Hope snatched her hand back from his throat as though it had burned her. Logan slumped to the floor and held his head in his hands. He wasn't sure what had just happened. He remembered yellow eyes and growls, and Hope''s eyes staring into his, probing, searching. Logan jerked his head up. Hope. Hope had done something to him. Logan met her eyes quickly, but they were just a forest green, without a trace of yellow. Hope met his glaze solemnly. Logan tore his eyes away and quickly ran them over her, studying her more closely than he had before. 

She was small. Even smaller then Max. 5"1, maybe 5"2. Her clothes were three sizes too big for her. Her hair was red, no, orange, like carrots. It was thick and curly and reached her hips. Her eyes looked to big for her face, and her skin was almost white. She looked like a little girl more then a solder of twenty. 

A flicker of movement drew Logan's attention back to her face. Hope's eyes were moving swiftly behind her closed eyelids. It was like she was searching for something inside herself. Logan watched her for a few more seconds before she let out a satisfied sigh and opened her eyes. 

"What was that all about? What did you do to me?" Logan said sharply. "How did you--" He was interrupted by a very impatient Hope. 

"Max isn't dead." 

Logan froze. Of corse Max was dead. She died in his arms. But Hope sounded so sure--so forceful. 

"How...I mean...what...umm, are you sure?" Logan finely managed. Hope gave him a dismissive glance. 

"Of course I'm sure. I would know. I'm her sister remember?" she said. 

Logan shook his head. "Nope, sorry, that just doesn't do it for me. You're going to have to come up with a better reason than that to convince me."   
  


Hope looked at him thoughtfully. Ok, she thought, here goes nothing.

"Okay, Logan. I'm going to tell you something. Something I've never told anyone." Hope took a deep breath. Logan had a feeling that whatever she was about to tell him was big--very big. And suddenly, he wasn't so sure he wanted to know. But it was too late to stop, Hope had already began talking, and whatever he was about to hear he had brought upon himself. 

"There are things about me, Logan..." Hope paused. "Things about me that Manticore can't even explain. They labeled me an X5, but I was never really one of them. I can do all the things they can do. Run, jump, swim, track, evade, hunt..." She paused again. "Kill." Hope watched as Logan flinched on the last one. "I can do all the things they can do, but I do it better." 

Hope watched as Logan narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean better?" he asked. 

"It's really hard to explain..." Hope paused, trying to find the words, trying to put into words what had never been said. At least not out loud, Hope thought. "You know that Zach was the best of us right? I mean that's why he was our CO. As fast as we ran, he always ran faster. As long as we could hold our breath, he could always hold his longer. Do you see were I'm going with this?" When Logan nodded she continued. "At least that's what they wanted the rest of them to think. I mean you can't have a simple solider running faster and holding her breath longer then the CO. The CO's the best. That's just the way it is." 

Hope paused. Logan could tell there was more to this then just being better than Zach. He also knew it wasn't about the thing she could do with computers. He had seen the plug. 

Hope drew in a breath and started talking again. "I don't think Manticore is even sure how they did it. They were never able to again achieve what I can do. The closest they got was the X7s. The only thing I can think of is that I must have gotten it from my mother. They told us that our mothers were sluts and two dollar whores. Maybe some of them were, but not mine. Mine was special. I don't know how, I just know she was. She had a gift, a gift that was passed on to me." 

Hope glanced at Logan. He was busy staring at her wrist. She resisted the urge to snort. Here she was trying to open up to this guy and all he could think about was her hardware. "I can see your interest lies else were. Fine, I'll tell you about this," Hope gestured to her wrist. "First." Hope smirked when Logan flushed slightly. 

"Sorry, it's just that I've never seen anything like that, ever, anywhere, at all..." he trailed off quickly. 

Hope just waved away his excuses. "Every series is supposed to have one soldier that could deal with the technical stuff. It was a good idea really, I mean we were coming into a technical age--doing things we'd never even thought possible. That is at least before the Pulse. So you can see why it looked like a good idea at the time. But I'm actually the only one from all the series that survived." When Logan gave her a questioning look she said, "It's a very um." Hope paused. "Painful thing to be chosen for. All the others that were picked couldn't take it. The only reason I survived is because of one of my mother's gifts." 

Logan perked up upon hearing her last sentence. "Because of one of them? You mean like there's more than one?" When she nodded he went on. "What, like two?" With a negative shake of her head, she said, "More than two." "How many more?" he asked. "Lots," was the only answer she would give him. Frustrated he said, "Fine, but which one kept you alive when all the others died?" "This one," she answered simply, she jerked a knife out of her boot, and without even a moments hesitation about what she was about to do, used it to slit her throat. 


	4. The End

Logan jumped up out of his chair. He was already reaching out toward Hope when she held up a hand, signaling him to stop. She was taking gasping breaths. She pointed to her throat, then to the knife. Logan stared, right before his eyes her skin was knitting back together. Her breath was coming easier, and the blood seemed to be stopping.

  
  


"It takes less then 15 seconds for a wound to heal completely." Hope said. Her voice coming out in a croak.

  
  


Logan was still very unsure. "Do you need anything? Is there something that will help?" he asked.

  
  


"I could use a glass of water." Hope answered.

  
  


When Logan handed her the glass Hope wouldn't meet his eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked, "Does it hurt? Did it not heal right?"

  
  


"No, I'm fine. It's just that no one besides the doctors at Manticore have ever seen me do that. It just feels a little weird."

  
  


They were quiet for a few minutes. Each thinking their own thoughts. Logan finally spoke. 

  
  


"When you said Max was alive, did you mean it? Is she really?" Hope decided not to answer his question for the moment. "Logan, I think I should tell you about one of my other gifts." she said. 

  
  


Logan was aware that Hope had not answered his question, but he let it go. Hope continued, "Sometimes I see things. Call them visions, or flashes. Sometimes it will be the past, but mostly it's the future. A few days ago I had one. It was about Max and Zach, but it was also about you. I saw you Logan. I know what you were going to do."

  
  


Hope paused as Logan lowered his eyes. He'd only thought about it a couple of times. He just didn't understand how he was going to live without Max. "And," Hope continued, "I came here to stop you. You're a very important person, Logan. You help a lot of people. I won't let you throw that all away in a moment of pain. Max will come back." Just not to you, she added silently. 

  
  


Hope had seen Max's future. She had seen the brown haired, blue eyed man that her sister would fall in love with. The man who wore the face of a brother. It would take Max a long time to get over that. To be able to see past the face and into the soul. It wasn't going to be easy for 494, or rather Alec, either. He was going to have to find his place in the world. And he was going to have to break out of the mold that Manticore had pored him into. But, they would survive, and they would have each other.

  
  


Hope went on to tell Logan that Max was going to be a very important person to her people someday. When Logan joked about her making Max sound like some kind of Messhia, Hope just laughed. Hope told him many things. She did not tell him about Alec, or Zach, or the virus, or about White. And she did not tell him about his death, which she had seen, a death that would come at a very early age, when White would finally catch up with him. Or about how he would die alone and afraid. Max would mourn for him, they all would. But they would move on. They would get over it. She also did not tell him that in the grand scheme of things his death would mean very little. There would be no large visitation. No women throwing themselves on his grave. There would just be a girl, a wooden cross, nothing fancy, and an unmarked grave. His grave was to be deep inside Terminal City, where White's men would attack, torture, and eventually kill him.

  
  


When Hope left Logan's apartment that night she felt better then she had in years. They had talked for hours. Hope was very carful about what she told Logan. She didn't tell him anything that would change to future, or at least she hoped not. She reminded him not to let anyone know that Max was alive. Hope guessed she should worry about Max a little, but Max was strong, she would be ok.

  
  


In the months and years that followed, Hope would often wonder if maybe she should have stayed. When Manticore burned down, and there were hundreds more of them to take care of, Max could have used her help. When the siege began in Terminal City, they could have used one more solider, but in the end it really wasn't her battle. She had played a small part in the future of her people, her name wouldn't even be remembered. But as Hope Left Logan's flat that day, she did something that she hadn't done in a long while. She smiled.

  
  


The End

  
  


Notes: Thanks to Eternity, for the help with Max's number.

  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
